Elder Sackley goes to the West Indies: week 35

hi!

hmm this week was dang packed so I am just going to start listing stories off:

1. There was supposed to be a flood this past Saturday. The ocean apparently was supposed to rise 4 meters and everyone was telling me it was going to be the end of the world: "Worst flood ever." Well it ended up being super hot on Saturday and I honestly think that the ocean went down four meters instead of up...Moral of the story: the hype is never real.

2. I am going to have to rewind a couple months to give this story justice...

It was a Sunday morning and we were standing outside of a little shack building where our investigator Ephraïm had been renting a room- he came outside with his eyes full of tears and told us that he was completely out of food, and felt like he just couldn't keep living-he felt as if there was nothing he could do to improve his situation. Well how does a 19 year old boy from America respond to that? Easy. You don't. Collectively, we made the decision to go to church with the hope he would be given some blessing for attending church. For the next few months, Ephraim was able to find little work, but not enough-as in he has enough food and a place to sleep but that's about it.

We have worked with Ephraim for months on helping him find work. He has been meeting with the Branch President and finally this last Wednesday I went to see him and get blindsided as he told us he was leaving for Brasil.

....what??

He goes on to say that he had found a stable job there that would help him much more than anything here, and he can progress in the church work towards his goal of a mission by having such a stable job.

I dont think I have felt so down as I did last Wednesday. I am excited for Ephraim, but I feel like I am just going to miss seeing him progress so much! I love that guy, and it's hard to accept he really is leaving. The first night I met Ephraïm we talked for maybe a total of 2 minutes, but I knew he was someone special-someone I feel very grateful to know.

He will leave this week for Brazil- so I will write a little more about this whole experience next week, but until them remember him in your prayers!

3. So this past weekend Elder Cornish of the seventy came and visited Cayenne. Everyone was so excited to have him come so we had a big fireside on Friday night with him presiding. Frere Smith was asked to give the first talk which was essentially his story of conversion. It was a super good testimony-he killed it! Elder Cornish ended up referring to Smith's experience throughout the fireside, which made him feel good. Our zone conference with Elder Cornish was the next day. He shared a story with us which I am going to do my best to retell...

There once lived a poor boy with his widowed mother. They lived in a shack on the outskirts of a town. They owned one cow and were dependent on it for survival. If the grass did not grow as much one year the cow did not eat and the family suffered. One day a wise man entered the village. News spread fast that he was there and the boy ran into the city to talk to the man in hopes of finding some cure to the family's poverty. After hearing the boy's story, the wiseman exclaimed that he would like to help the family, so they went back to the boy's home.

So they went back to the shack and the wiseman went to the cow. He then walked the cow to an edge of a cliff and gave it a nice shove and of course then, the cow fell over the side to its death.

The wiseman then looked at the boy who was stunned beyond comprehension and told him that he would return to see the boy again in 10 years.

-10 years pass-

The wiseman returns to the city to find a huge mansion built right at the city center. He asks a man walking on the street who lived in the beautiful home...(And of course after some peering around, the wise man found that the young boy and the widow lived there.) The wiseman nodded in acknowledgment, and then left the city.

Elder Cornish then relayed that to our mission work, in that sometimes we limit our capabilities by simply living off a "cow". We become totally dependent on something to the point that we no longer see our full potential. The message of course then, is to kill your cow- eliminate the things that are holding you back from your Heavenly mansion. In other words, set your vision on a higher standard and create bigger goals then what you think you could possibly do. God sees our full potential like the Wiseman saw the boys potential, and allows us to go beyond our comfort zone in order to get there.

Have the faith to kill your cow,

Elder Logan Robert Sackley